Blue Oyster Cult doesn't make any more sense lyrically than they ever did but this album has delicious hooks ("I Love the Night" is the standout track), don't-think-go-with-it arena crunch ("R U Ready 2 Rock"), and beyond goofy stupid fun ("Godzilla").

There's something innocent about the whole endeavor. They sound like they're from an alternate dimension where Zep and Sabbath (and Yes) never happened to influence a million bands.

I've a soft spot for all the band's work, at least through Fire of Unknown Origin. The Revolution By Night has several contenders for worst rock song ever recorded. BOC is tough to objectively defend but Agents of Fortune and Spectres are both definitely worth owning. Add the later single "Fire of Unknown Origin" and the debut's "Then Came the Last Days of May" and that should be enough for most listeners. Toss in "She's as Beautiful as a Foot", also from the eponymous debut, as a novelty to round things out.

Blue Oyster Cult was never really a heavy metal band: for all their darkness and guitar oriented ventures , they were really quality songwriters who played something different all together. "Godzilla", the most famous track on "Spectres" is surely a hard rocker, but thirty years after first hearing "Spectres", I'm still not sure how to define it.

Take "Golden Age of Leather", the second track. It starts with a boy's choir singing a lyric and melody a capella that is not repeated in the song. The song then shpaeshifts into 3 and maybe four unique tempos and sounds-straight rocking,several bridges with lush vocal harmonies that would make the Beach Boys proud, and quasi-mystical lyrics that tell a tale I still haven't fully deciphered. And yes- it's listenable AND interesting!

"Death Valley Nights" is a great ballad with Allen Lanier piano mastery and a haunting refrain accented with a nice guitar lead. "Fireworks" is another nice little ballad with a catchy but complicated intro riff and well timed back and forth lead and background vocals. Cult in my opinion never had particularly strong or distinctive vocals, but everyone one in the band seems to show up to share duties in some fashion or another, and that's laudable.

You might not like "Spectres" on first listen, many of my friends haven't. But a few close listens really exposes one to the true talent of this mysterious band and their ability to wrote songs with melodies and subtle sub-melodies and surprises under the surface. Very interesting!

As one reviewer on here stated, the new remaster of this album & Some Enchanted Evening will be released remastered in the fall of 2006 complete with bonus tracks. Although I'm not sure what the hold ups been since the first four albums were remastered back in 2001 five years ago, that's a "Tyranny & Mutation" to have to wait that long. Hopefully when these are done, we won't have to wait that long for the rest.

Thats right! Blue Oyster Cult's official web site under BOC news 2005 states that Spectres and Some Enchanted Evening will be reissued in late 2006! The cd will be REMASTERED WITH BONUS TRACKS! So before shelling out 25-30 dollars or more to rip off sellers for what was originally a budget cd for only 8.99 at most stores just be a little patient. The wait will be well worth it! Just a thought. I hope this will be helpful to those wanting to add this most excellent cd to their collection. But! If you can't wait then I most certainly UNDERSTAND!

Yet ANOTHER great piece of work from Blue Oyster Cult. Spectres continues what they started with Agents Of Fortune, and in some ways even improved it! BOC starts it off with the infamous rocker, "Godzilla", and immediately sets a fun and exciting feel that carries through out the entire album. While Spectres definitely has that "rock" vibe to it, it also has alot of atmosphere to it, perhaps more so than any of it's preceeding albums. To me the only possible weak track is "R.U. Ready 2 Rock", because although it starts off great, it periodically retreats to a high-pitched and somewhat inferior sounding chorus. But ALL the other tracks are exceptional, and this is one album of a few in the world that I can listen to over and over again and never get sick of it. The stand-outs are "Godzilla" (GREAT seeing it in concert!), "Death Valley Nights", "Fireworks" (my favorite), "Goin' Through The Motions" and "I Love The Night". "Night" is a real mellow, beautiful and hypnotic BOC song and is a far-cry from most of their other work, and is very addictive. However, as great as this album is, I'll have to admit that it took a little longer to FULLY get into than their previous albums, but I'm not sure why. But once I got it, I got it. Some albums (with any band) take a couple extra listens than usual to fully appreciate, but I've come to realize that those are sometimes the albums you soon rank as some of the BEST in your entire collection, and Spectres is NO exception to that rule. Only BOC could pull off such an amazing follow-up to Agents Of Fortune. With each impressive album they put out, it is no wonder they are collectively thought of as the "Thinking Man's Rock Band"- in that they put such a degree of integrity and thought into their music, which in turn is always a reward to listen to. Give it a listen- you won't be sorry!

I've been a BOC fan from the beginning. When I hear they "sold out", it makes me chuckle. I call it evolution. They'd done the black leather heavy metal gig for 3 records and a live one and Agents of Fortune is where they began the subtle change. Sure, they needed some airplay and that's one of the reasons but as musicians grow older and maturer, they want to tap into something different as opposed to the same formula over and over again. Spectres is a masterpiece IMO. Agents got more critical acclaim but, personally, I like Spectres better. There's not a clinker on the entire record. Fireworks, Celestial the Queen, and Searchin for Celine are good tunes, not great ones but they're what I consider to be the lesser ones. I Love the Night, Golden Age of Leather, Nosferatu, and Death Valley Nights are BOC classics. Godzilla was the money song here and Goin Thru the Motions (an Eric Bloom/Ian Hunter collaboration)and RU Ready to Rock are the catchy ones and popular live tunes. The band, at this point, was never better. What more can you ask for as far as diversity goes. You get Albert and Joe with 2 songs apiece and Eric and Buck taking the rest. Why Alan didn't take a shot after True Confessions is beyond me though. This is a must-have for any fan of BOC.

This is one great album. I feel their first three albums are the best but this album I listen to over and over and love it. Any Blue Oyster Cult fan needs this album. Also the album came almost over night. Great album. great cd and great service.

That's the problem with this album. The music seems to be tired. "Godzilla" at least sounds like fun despite the fact that it is not a huge hit in my opinion. One and only really good song on this one is so NOT metal... it is a slow pop ballad "I Love the Night". Others are either very uninspired hard rock wannabes or pseudo-rock popsy tracks which were supposed to capture new audience. What did the BOC guys think? that they were going to enthrall and win over fans of The Carpenters or Boston or Peter Frampton? A very misguided experiment is what I think of this album whose issue didn't change anything in 1977 except perhaps put a couple of bucks into the pockets of music industry... but barely enough to cover a dinner for the band.

"Spectres" has it's high and low points; "Godzilla" is a classic, and "Death Valley Nights" is also one of BOC's finer moments. There are a few other good songs, such as "Golden Age of Leather" and the catchy "R U Ready 2 Rock" (although the lyrics on the latter song leave much to be desired). Unfortunately "Spectres" also contains "Fireworks" and the appropriately titled "Goin Through the Motions", which are absolutely awful, almost unlistenable pop music songs. I suppose this album is still worth purchasing, though, especially since it is very reasonably priced.

Blue Öyster Cult does real well on this album although not its best. My favorite Id say on here is Golden Age of Leather!